USA Comics

Timely Comics struck it big in 1939 with Marvel (Mystery) Comics, whose characters The Human Torch and The Sub-Mariner became increasingly popular as the war in Europe and The Pacific escalated. Then, in early 1941, the company struck the knockout-blow when the introduced Captain America. Timely now had 3 big sellers, and it seemed there was no stopping them…

However, they may have started to over-extended themselves by releasing too many new titles too quickly. Publisher Martin Goodman and his main Editor Joe Simon immediately rushed new product on to the stands, introducing a barrage of fresh characters in hopes of replicating the success of their “big three.” 

Within 2 years they rolled out the titles Daring Mystery Comics, Mystic Comics, All-Select Comics, All-Winners Comics and USA Comics (as well as giving Torch and Sub-Mariner their own books). Ostensibly, a number of these were started strictly for the purpose of featuring new heroes exclusively - but, unfortunately, many of them wound up being anchored by one or more of the Big Three in the lead story in order to bolster the lagging sales of these books starring half-baked, second and third tier characters. A prime example of this is USA Comics…

Right off the bat, the book began with The Defender in the lead story, co-featuring the The Whizzer, Mr. Liberty, Rockman (by future legend Basil Wolverton), The Young Avenger, and Jack Frost (an early Stan Lee creation and writing credit). Yeah, I know - who were some of these guys?!?

With minor tweaking, issue #2 wasn’t much of an improvement - bringing new hero Captain Terror into the lead slot, and re-making Mr. Liberty into Major Liberty (patriotic heroes with military designations were on the upswing, of course). 

Same cast, minus the Whizzer, for issue #3, which, notably would be Joe Simon’s last gasp as Editor, as he and Jack Kirby exited to go work for DC/National.

#4 ; same cast. The Whizzer returns, and young Stan Lee takes over editing.

Re-tooling came with #5 with yet another new cast: The Victory Boys in the lead story, The Black Widow, The Blue Blade, Roko, The Amazing, and the American Avenger. Not great stuff, and interesting if only in the obscurity of the heroes.

Nothing seemed to be resonating with the public in USA Comics, which for Timely meant it was time to bring out a big gun to save the title… namely Captain America.

With Cap in the lead story, who could sell the book on his popularity alone, from issue #6 forward perhaps they could afford to take a few more risks. And in in issue #6 we got more changes; Alex Schomburg started doing some very eye-appealing covers. Along with Cap, we got a more streamlined book, with The Destroyer, The Whizzer and new character Jap Buster Johnson (scripted by Mickey Spillane).

# 7 would be the last issue edited by Stan Lee, who was drafted, and with Captain America still anchoring the book, USA offered a Captain Daring story (a rare full story penciled by Schomburg - primarily being a cover artist), and a slight re-tooling of Marvel Boy, who was introduced in Daring Mystery. Mercifully, this would be his last Golden-Age appearance. Oh, and we got another Spillane-penned Jap Buster Johnson feature.

Veteran Al Fago would assume editing duties with issue# 8, and the cast settled into what it would remain for the rest of USA’s short life - Captain America, The Destroyer, The Whizzer and Jap Buster Johnson. The same lineup in #9, but this time with lots of questions as to who wrote and drew the stories, due to Timely losing many of their regulars to the War effort.

Up until this time, USA ran bi-monthly, but from issue #10 through to its final issue (#17), it became a very slim quarterly, partially due to the paper shortage and the lagging sales. And increasingly, the hero stories became shorter, and more “filler” humor and generic adventure material would start infiltrating USA Comics.

USA ceased production with #17, cover dated Fall of 1945, perhaps serendipitously, as we were dropping “The Bomb” on Japan, effectively ending WWII.

All issues are RARE - and thus very in demand on the collector’s market. Follow the links on Quality Comics’ online price guide to see what recent sales have netted!